“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.” (John 14:10 NAS95)
Jesus showed us the way, the way to communion with the Father. John’s Gospel has numerous similar statements by Jesus, and Jesus also utilizes similar language to refer to His disciples. Jesus, the Master, and if I may, the Expert, exemplifies what it means to live in constant communion with His Father. More than that, I think He uses language in such a way to stretch our imaginations. “I do not speak on my own initiative.” I hate to mention it, but if I had lived back then and heard that from Jesus, I’d have responded with 21st century skepticism and said, “Who are your fooling? It sure looks like Your initiative!” Yet He finishes His statement: “the Father abiding in Me does His works.” Why not “speaks?” I mean Jesus just talked about speaking; now He’s associating that with works? It’s both/and. God works in, through, and around Jesus, and Jesus carries this awareness. He communes along the way and enters the invitations of His Father.
Jesus attended the Father and they knew each other intimately — you might say inside-out. Jesus lived and taught how we could enter that same communion with God. You might call it union, and John speaks clearly of this for us in 17:20-26. Jesus provides an example of loving trust, attention, listening as well as interaction with God. It is invisible to the eye, but the communion is real. He’s convinced of God’s love and lives out of it. The results are visible. Jesus created us for this purpose: to live in unceasing interaction with God. He showed us the way to the Father. He lived in expectation of the Father’s activity. Jesus invites us to the same communion with God because He’s convinced of God’s crazy-kind-of love. This is the stuff prayer is made of and makes the Kingdom felt.
For Reflection:
“When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”” (Psalms 27:8 NAS95)
- How practiced are you in attending to God, who continues unceasingly in His presence to you? How heart-convinced are you of His love toward you?
- What is your expectation level of God’s interaction with, in, around and through you?
